Chamber and committees

The Executive uses a range ofmeasures to examine the benefits and returns that arise from our investment in post-compulsoryeducation. This includes continuous monitoring of the further and higher educationgraduate labour markets, including earnings and wage premiums, and employment anddestinations. In addition to work undertaken within the Executive, FutureskillsScotland regularly conducts further research and analysis that benchmarks aspectsof Scotland’s labour quality, post-compulsory education output andlabour market performance over time and against other nations and regions. Thisaims to provide employers, learning providers and policymakers with intelligenceon the labour market, and on education and skills.

The Scottish Funding Councilalso has a number of performance indicators that benchmark and monitor the investmentmade in tertiary education, and will develop a number of further performance measures as part of the process of developingits new strategy and corporate plan. Ministers have asked the council produce adraft of the plan by summer.2006.

The benefits and returns thatarise from our investment in post-compulsory education are continuously monitoredand published. Both regular and ad hoc specific analysis is undertaken by the Executive,the Scottish Funding Council and more recently, by Futureskills Scotland. Thisanalysis seeks to scrutinise the investment made in post-compulsory education andto identify the effects of such investment on employers, learners, learning providersand the overall economy.

In addition to this on-goinganalysis, ministers have asked the Funding Council to develop a new strategy andcorporate plan setting out how it will address ministerial priorities. As part ofthis process, the council will be developing performance measures to monitor theinvestment made in tertiary education. The council has been asked to produce a draftof the plan by summer 2006.

The Executive constantly examinethe benefits and returns that arise from our investment in post-compulsory educationwith continuous monitoring of the further and higher education graduate labour markets,including earnings and returns to skills, and employment and destinations.

In addition to work undertakenwithin the Executive, Futureskills Scotland regularly conducts further research and analysis thatbenchmarks aspects of Scotland’s labour quality, post-compulsory education output andlabour market performance over time and against other nations and regions. The ScottishFunding Council also has a number of performance indicators and benchmarks thatmonitor the investment made in tertiary education and will develop further performance measures as part of the processof developing its new strategy and corporate plan. Ministers have asked the councilto produce a draft of the plan by summer 2006.

This continuous monitoring ispublished both regularly through, for example, statistical releases, and on an irregularbasis when more in-depth analysis is undertaken. Both can be seen in a wide rangeof publications, and through a number of different channels, from, for example,the Executive, Futureskills Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.

The continuous monitoring of the benefits and returns that arise from our investment in post-compulsory education,undertaken by the Executive, the Scottish Funding Councils and, more recently, FutureskillsScotland, stretches back to 1999 and is an on-going activity to ensure effectivenessand transparency.

Data on the number of VATregistrations are released annually bythe Small Business Service, an agency of the Department for Trade and Industry.These figures are used to monitor the number of business start-ups.

The following table showsthe number of VAT registrations in Scotland from 1999 to 2004:

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Registrations	11,500	11,305	10,950	11,080	11,790	11,845

Source:Small Business Service, DTI.

Please note that thesefigures do not account for all Scottish business starts as only companies witha turnover above the VAT threshold are required to register.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-21965 on 3 February 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Estimates for the number ofpeople in self-employment each year are available from the Labour Force Survey.Table 1 gives estimates of the number of self-employed people in each yeartogether with the change in the estimate from the previous year.

The estimates are based on asample survey, and as such, are subject to some sampling error. The changes inthe estimates shown are not statistically significant when sampling error istaken into account.

Table 1: Number of Self-EmployedPeople, Scotland, 1997 to 2005

Quarter	Level	Change year-on-year
Spring 1997	239,000
Spring 1998	238,000	-1,000
Spring 1999	224,000	-14,000
Spring 2000	217,000	-7,000
Spring 2001	230,000	13,000
Spring 2002	230,000	0
Spring 2003	242,000	12,000
Spring 2004	244,000	2,000
Spring 2005	232,000	-12,000

Source: Labour Force Survey(March-May quarters).

Notes:

1. Estimates are of thenumber of people aged 16 or over in self-employment.

2. Estimates are rounded tothe nearest thousand.

The Chancellor of theExchequer announced in the budget £50 million in additional funding for theDepartment of Trade and Industry’s Low Carbon Building Programme. This is a UK wideprogramme which was launched on 29 March 2006. The Executive is working with DTIto develop a plan for how the scheme would operate in Scotland.

KPMG submitted their final reporton 24 April 2006 and this is available on the Scottish Executive’s website.However, a near final draft was made available on the Scottish Executive’s websiteon 21 April 2006.

The Executive receives regularreports from Scottish Enterprise, following board discussion, on overall performanceagainst objectives. Any matters of concern are raised with Scottish Enterprise.In addition, the Enterprise Department receives regular financial information andmeets Scottish Enterprise to discuss, amongst other matters, actual and forecastspend. At the quarterly meeting in October 2005 Scottish Enterprise expected tokeep within budget as reflected in reports to their board, and no indications tothe contrary were given to the Executive until late January 2006.